The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and an image processing program storage medium for facilitating diverse input operations such as selection of a menu and starting of an application program.
Recent years have witnessed widespread use of personal computer operating systems such as Windows 95 (registered trademark) and Windows 98 (registered trademark), both from Microsoft Corporation in the United States. Such operating systems offer on a display screen various task bars with indications visible to users such as buttons representing applications each having an active window.
A technique dealing with the use of the task bar is disclosed in detail by Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 8-255066. Below is an excerpt from the cited patent application.
Illustratively, the task bar includes buttons that inform a user which tasks are currently active. The task bar may also include a start menu button comprising menu items that allow the user to activate desired programs, open documents and gain access to a menu of system settings.
In a typical computer system including a central processing unit (CPU) and such peripherals as a mouse, a keyboard and a video display, the start menu button on the task bar is used illustratively as follows: the start menu button is operated by the user to open the start menu for gaining access to programs, documents, system controls and help information. Initially, the user points a mouse cursor to the start menu button and clicks a left mouse button. The actions cause the start menu to appear.
The start menu typically includes such menu items as programs, search, setting and help. The xe2x80x9cprogramsxe2x80x9d menu item when selected allows the user to access a program menu displayed hierarchically from the start menu. The program menu displays a plurality of application programs and a group of programs that may be selected by the user.
The trouble is that the user is required repeatedly to perform complicated actions when selecting and activating a desired application program from the task bar comprising the start menu button.
Specifically, the user first points the mouse cursor to the start menu button on the task bar and clicks the left mouse button to display the start menu. Next, the user points the mouse cursor to the xe2x80x9cprogramsxe2x80x9d menu item in the start menu and clicks the left mouse button to display the program menu. The user then points the mouse cursor to an indication of the desired application program in the program menu, and again clicks the left mouse button. Another series of point and click actions is needed if there is an application program group. Finally the CPU activates the selected application program.
The user is required conventionally to repeat such complicated actions before starting the desired application program. In particular, if the user is already handling some other chores with one hand, operating the pointing device with the other hand often turns out to be a difficult task from a user interface point of view. The same difficulty is encountered when other menu items such as xe2x80x9chelpxe2x80x9d are clicked from the start menu program for desired processing.
Meanwhile, the so-called bar code system is used extensively today in various industrial fields. The system involves encoding in bars alphanumeric characters representing identification numbers and other information about goods and articles, and attaching such codes to the goods and products so that their identification information may later be scanned and retrieved by an optical recognition apparatus called a bar code scanner. The bar code system, used primarily at cash registers or like equipment in retail stores, allows bar codes on sold products to be optically scanned so as to acquire their identification numbers. The acquired identification numbers are used as a basis for retrieving previously stored prices of the corresponding products from a database, and the retrieved prices are displayed on a display part at the cashiers"" counter.
The bar code system has so far been utilized only as a means for alleviating the burden of cashiers entering product identification numbers through key operations. As such, the code system has not been used for bypassing the chores of computer input operations such as menu selections when a desired program is to be activated selectively from among application programs stored beforehand on a hard disk drive (HDD) of a general purpose personal computer.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and an image processing program storage medium for facilitating diverse input operations such as selection of a menu and starting of an application program, wherein a user simply presenting a computer with a menu selection card with a suitable two-dimensional code printed thereon causes the position of the code to be captured so that remote operations such as menu selection and application program activation are carried out according to information on the captured position.
In carrying out the invention and according to one aspect thereof as defined in the appended claim 1, there is provided an image processing apparatus comprising: image acquiring means for acquiring an object image; displaying means for displaying the object image acquired by the image acquiring means; captured position information recognizing means for capturing a predetermined image pattern from within the object image acquired by the image acquiring means in order to recognize position information about the image pattern relative to the object image; menu display controlling means for displaying a menu image in overlaid relation to the object image displayed by the displaying means in accordance with an outcome of the recognition by the captured position information recognizing means; and starting means for starting a previously related process based on the menu image displayed by the menu display controlling means as well as on the position information recognized by the captured position information recognizing means.
According to another aspect of the invention as defined in the appended claim 5, there is provided an image processing method comprising the steps of: acquiring an object image; displaying the object image acquired in the image acquiring step; recognizing position information about a predetermined image pattern relative to the object image by capturing the image pattern from within the object image acquired in the image acquiring step; controlling display of a menu image in overlaid relation to the object image displayed in the displaying step in accordance with an outcome of the recognition in the captured position information recognizing step; and starting a previously related process based on the menu image displayed by the menu display controlling step as well as on the position information recognized in the captured position information recognizing step.
According to a further aspect of the invention as defined in the appended claim 6, there is provided an image processing program storage medium for storing an image processing program in a manner executable by a computer, the image processing program comprising the steps of: acquiring an object image; displaying the object image acquired in the image acquiring step; recognizing position information about a predetermined image pattern relative to the object image by capturing the image pattern from within the object image acquired in the image acquiring step; controlling display of a menu image in overlaid relation to the object image displayed in the displaying step in accordance with an outcome of the recognition in the captured position information recognizing step; and starting a previously related process based on the menu image displayed by the menu display controlling step as well as on the position information recognized in the captured position information recognizing step.
Through the use of the inventive image processing apparatus, image processing method, and image processing program storage medium outlined above, a predetermined image pattern is first captured from an acquired object image. Position information about the captured image pattern relative to the object image is then recognized. A menu image is displayed on the basis of the captured position information, and a previously related process is started accordingly.